You Can Overcome Panic Attacks Associated With Quitting Smoking
Do you have panic attacks and smoke? Do you experience episodes where, whenever someone talks about how they quit smoking, your heart races, your head hurts, your stomach does flip-flops, and you can't breathe? Would you do just about anything to make the panic attacks associated with quitting smoking stop?
Face Your Fears
If you smoke cigarettes, there is one way you can seriously reduce the likelihood of having a panic attack: Quit.
Studies have proven that giving up cigarettes can decrease your chances of having a panic attack Nicotine and tobacco have both been shown separately to cause panic attacks. Since cigarettes have plenty of both these substances, cigarette smoking is a trigger for panic attacks. It is undisputed that panic attacks are associated with smoking, so quitting smoking is almost certain to make those panic attacks stop or at least decrease in frequency and intensity.
Ironically, most smokers think it's just the opposite. They think quitting smoking will cause them to have panic attacks. Smokers start to get panic attacks associated with quitting smoking when they just think about quitting. Many smokers think they are already experiencing mild panic attacks associated with quitting smoking when they start to run low on cigarettes and can't get to a store to restock their supply. They experience a feeling of generalized panic, and they may have some physiological symptoms that are similar to the symptoms of a classic panic attack.
What these smokers are actually experiencing is mere anxiety, or at most a mild situational panic attack. The symptoms of anxiety caused by an anticipated cigarette shortage always subside if the smoker finds an unopened pack of cigarettes hidden away somewhere, or if a stale cigarette or two shows up at the bottom of a handbag or on the floor of the car.
What's really interesting about the smokers' anxiety about running out is that it almost always happens with a cigarette in their hands. The smoker is not experiencing withdrawal symptoms. The nicotine and tobacco in the cigarette are making the smoker more likely to have a panic attack in the first place.
If you said you would do anything to make your panic attacks stop, now you know what to do. Now you know that a reduction in the frequency, duration, and intensity of panic attacks is associated with quitting smoking.
More than three million Americans quit smoking every year. Won't you join them?
